Post sayings or stories from Buddhist traditions which you find interesting, inspiring or useful. (Your own stories are welcome on DW, but in the Creative Writing or Personal Experience forums rather than here.)

Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf's edge and and the beach. Back and forth this person went. As the man approached he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.

The man was stuck by the the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.

As he came up to the person he said, "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference." The person looked at the man. He then stooped down and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, "It sure made a difference to that one!"

David N. Snyder wrote:Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf's edge and and the beach. Back and forth this person went. As the man approached he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.

The man was stuck by the the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.

As he came up to the person he said, "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference." The person looked at the man. He then stooped down and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, "It sure made a difference to that one!"

Bankei was a famous Zen teacher in Japan many years ago.His lectures were so popular they attracted many students, they were always open to anyone, no matter what their experience with Zen was.Once during a series of lectures some of his long term students found that some of their personal items had been stolen. The obvious suspect was a stranger new to the lectures.

David N. Snyder wrote:I always loved this story; it reminds me of the Bodhisattva Ideal. It does not matter "how many" we save or help, but it does matter to each and everyone we do touch and reach in a positive way.

-------------Sawaddee Ka...David

I found 2 very beautiful pictures of crown-of-thorns starfish ....beautiful indeed!!

I love all kinds of starfish...there are many many colorful starfishes at Thai beaches.

Crown of thorns starfish, known as COTS, eat their body weight in coral every day, thrive in nutrient-rich waters, and in a population explosion can release up to 100 billion eggs on to the reef in a breeding cycle.

The multi-spiked sea stars are potentially lethal to humans and possess a neurotoxin that if repeatedly released into the system causes the body to go into shock.

Since these deadly forms of starfish generally live deep on the ocean floor, they rarely come in contact with humans. But next time you see a starfish washed ashore along your favorite beach, you may want to think twice before getting too close.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef has lost 50% of its coral since the mid-1980s, much of that because of a ravenous species of starfish that can each consume some 12 square yards (10 square meters) of coral in a year, scientists reported Tuesday.

According to a study by the Australian government's Institute of Marine Sciences and the University of Wollongong, the coral cover on the world's largest coral reef ecosystem suffered damage from tropical cyclones (48%), the crown-of-thorns starfish (42%), and coral bleaching (10%).

If current trends continue, the reef will lose another 50% of its coral in the next 10 years, the scientists said.

Stopping the starfish infestation is the one thing humans can do that can save the reef, they said.

According to the study, the starfish in its larval stage feeds on plankton, populations of which surge when fertilizer runoff floods the coastal ocean waters with nutrients. So plentiful plankton can lead to swarms of hungry starfish.

The starfish consume the corals by climbing onto them, thrusting out their stomachs, and bathing the coral in digestive enzymes, which liquefy it for ingestion. Adult crown-of-thorns starfish, ranging in size from 9 to 18 inches in diameter and with up to 21 arms, can eat nearly a square foot of coral each in a day.

**** Besides protecting the environment, WWF said loss of the reef means loss of jobs for Australians.

“Sixty thousand jobs in the tourism industry depend on us acting with urgency over the next few years,” the WWF's Heath said in a statement.

David N. Snyder wrote:I believe it is only the larger crown-of-thorns starfish that consume coral, not the type in the OP story and video.

But it does bring a sort of twist to this story. Sometimes we do good or try to do good but it can have unintended negative consequences.

Every time we save a living animal from death we are condemning its future food to death, aren't we? That goes for saving people from death, too. Sometimes we are condemning a predator to death from starvation, as well, e.g. rescuing a butterfly from a spider's web may mean the spider dies.

I don't wish to unduly criticise the story as offered here... but the original essay is, in my humblest opinion, a beautiful piece of writing and exposition, and I urge people to go and read it.

“Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.”

Qing Tian wrote:I don't wish to unduly criticise the story as offered here... but the original essay is, in my humblest opinion, a beautiful piece of writing and exposition, and I urge people to go and read it.

Agreed.Follow the link in my first post to this thread to find the original.

Starfish, like many sea creatures, are able to regenerate (grow back) parts of their bodies. Starfish are better at regeneration than most other creatures. Not only can a new ray grow when a ray is torn off, but if the torn off ray has even a small piece of the central disk still attached, a whole new starfish can grow from the one ray.[1]p35

Because starfish like to eat clams and oysters, fishermen who gather shellfish have tried for years to get rid of them. To kill the starfish, fishermen would catch them, slice them right in half, and throw them back in the ocean. However, because starfish can grow back parts of their bodies, they were actually increasing the number of starfish.